Soma

Soma

Part of me wishes Soma were more traditionally scary. After years of anticipating Soma as a horror game—one from Amnesia/Penumbra creator Frictional, no less—there’s still a bit of disappointment that the game is more cerebral than in-your-face terrifying.

But there’s not much disappointment, because Soma sacrificed horror for an excellent science fiction story. In fact, the game might’ve been better if it eschewed “monsters” entirely. With Soma, Frictional proved once again that a strong sense of setting and thematic consistency are far more memorable than cheap jump scares.

As I said in our review: “It’s a story you might’ve seen in grainy black and white onTwilight Zone or maybe The Outer Limits. It is bits of Blade Runner, of Demon with a Glass Hand, of I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream and The Martian Chronicles and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and so many other legendary works of science fiction. It’s a story that deals with that most human of all topics: What does it mean to be human?”